JENA – Two charter buses packed with LSU students made the three-hour journey to central Louisiana to fight for justice and protest the charges facing the Jena 6.
Shanelle Matthews, mass communication senior and former Daily Reveille columnist, organized the bus trip for 110 college students to come together for the common cause.
“What we have here is six lives hanging on the balance of the basis of a white, racist justice system,” Matthews said. “And I’m so ecstatic to be able to see all these people, not just black but white and black alike, uniting on behalf of such a phenomenal cause.”senior at Xavier University, said she traveled with a group of 200 students from her school.
“Because it was so close we wanted to get together and go to the source to see what was going on,” Curtis said. “In being here, I’m doing my duty to my fellow man.”
Curtis said her peers at Xavier are aware of the happenings in Jena, but many could not attend because of classes.
“This is a day that all kinds of people of all kinds of colors and creeds came together to help,” Curtis said.
Dave Nelson, a white Jena native, said people’s perception of his hometown are inaccurate.
“In the beginning, [the media’s coverage] was one-sided,” Nelson said. “This is not at all a racist community. It’s because of CNN [and] NBC who want sound-bites instead of a story [that Jena looks bad].”
Nelson said many of the people in the Jena community were concerned something – such as violent outbreaks – might occur. He said their worries caused some local businesses to close for the day and residents to leave town during the protest. But Nelson said the protesters did not cause a problem.
“As long as it’s just walking up and down the street expressing their opinion, I don’t care [that they’re here],” Nelson said. “It hasn’t hurt a thing. As long as there is no violence, as long as there is no destruction, it’s OK.”
Nelson said Jena’s perception of the situation is different from that of the nation’s opinion.
“Some people [from Jena] think the murder charges are a little much, and the court of appeals agreed,” Nelson said. “But practically everyone believes these boys need some punishment.”
Antione Boykins traveled from Michigan with the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. His group of more than 100 members traveled about 20 hours to get to Jena. Boykins said the situation received little media attention in his hometown until recent weeks.
“Hopefully our black man gets freed or gets the lowest amount of sentencing,” Boykins said. “I didn’t make this drive for nothing.”
Jeremy Cormier, business management senior at Morehouse College, helped organize a group from the Atlanta University Center – which includes six Atlanta area colleges. He said he collaborated with the schools to spread word of the Jena 6 and get a group to travel to the small Louisiana town.
“We want to show American society that young adults are standing up for other young adults,” Cormier said. “We’re not letting things go unnoticed.”
Cormier said the harsh reality of the situation was a wake-up call for him and his Atlanta peers.
“It’s very important for college kids to be involved in this because it could have been them,” Cormier said. “It could have been us sitting in those cells and not having the opportunity to go to college and just wasting almost a year of education.”
The day came to a culmination when President Bush said he understood the emotions in Jena and that the FBI was monitoring the situation, according to The Associated Press.
“The events in Louisiana have saddened me,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “All of us in America want there to be, you know, fairness when it comes to justice.”
Jones said he was pleased with the rally and impressed with the diversity of the protesters.
“I feel great there are so many individuals from all over,” Jones said. “It’s just nice to meet all different types of people out here to support this.”
—Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]